Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin is refusing to search for excuses for his team's below-par start to the AFL season.
Ahead of Friday's round-three clash with fellow winless outfit Essendon, the Demons could throw up reasons like their wretched pre-season - which included 12 surgeries - for their poor form.
But Goodwin said he wanted his players to be judged on the here and now, and not what happened over an injury-marred summer.
"What I want to do is put that to bed, as a coach and as a club - there is no more excuses for us as a club," Goodwin said on Thursday.
"Start judging us on our performances and not on our pre-season.
"We're ready to go - we've got a good 22 that's going out there to play, so let's judge us on our performances and stop the excuses."
The Demons were rattled by last round's 80-point loss to Geelong but a healthy victory over the Bombers could help restore confidence to a group that promised so much after making the preliminary finals last year.
"Confidence is a great word but you can't sprinkle it, you can't get it in a cereal bowl, you've got to earn it," Goodwin said.
"You've actually got to go and do the work, do the performance, do your time, start playing better as a group and a team and start helping each other."
Considered a strong suit during their top-four 2018 finish, the Demons' much-heralded attack has been absent so far this year.
Goodwin said his players needed to connect better through the field, not just inside 50.
"A lot of the time people look at how we actually kick the ball inside 50, sometimes it's the build-up that's the most important bit," Goodwin said.
"(We had) 72 entries (against Geelong), we've got to connect better for more than six goals."
Goodwin backed Christian Petracca to rebound from a slow start after his former No.2 draft pick was criticised for his 16-disposal game.
"Last week he got beaten fair and square by a good player (Jake Kolodjashnij) but he was in a lot of one-on-one contests," Goodwin said.
"The stuff we've been working on with Christian, if he can keep putting himself in those one-on-one contests and he starts winning his fair share of the ball in those contests, you're going to have a very good player."
